Topic: Focus

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Focus Terrorist watch lists: Are they working as they should?

Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was one of 875,000 names in a database the US uses to produce at least nine watch lists, but the naming didn't prevent the attack. Some security experts worry that data overload may be hindering US counterterrorism efforts.
Focus One man's escape from Camp 14 and North Korea

Only one prisoner born in North Korea's gulag is known to have escaped to tell his story. A Q&A with Blaine Harden, the journalist who wrote about Shin Dong-hyuk.
Focus North Korea's hidden labor camps exposed

A new UN panel is vowing to hold North Korea's Kim regime to 'full accountability' for decades of mass crime and murder. Will Pyongyang face ICC indictment?
Focus Education reform's next big thing: Common Core standards ramp up

Common Core standards are aimed at building students' critical thinking skills, and 46 states have adopted them. But critics say the methods are unproven and the education reform is moving too fast.
Focus Common Core promises new tests. Will they be better than the old ones?

Even before teachers have switched to new Common Core curriculum, new assessment tests are in the works. Teachers hope they'll be better than the current fill-in-the-bubble ones.
Focus Excitement fades to despair in rebel-held Syria as war grinds on

Early rebel optimism in Syria has given way to a grim realization that victory may still be years away. For the past two months, civilians have been fleeing Syria at a rate of 8,000 per day.
Focus Syria: Damaged landmarks await peace, restoration

The loss of a famous mosque's minaret brought world attention to threats facing Syrian landmarks. But the Umayyad Mosque is just one in a long list of ancient monuments damaged by fighting.
Focus 'Provoking peace' in Indonesia

Christians and Muslims in Ambon, Indonesia, have relearned how to live together after a 1999 - 2002 war killed 5,000 people and displaced half a million.
Focus Big Three automakers, reinvented, eye consumers worldwide

GM, Ford, and Chrysler have reinvented themselves in the years since the Great Recession almost spelled the demise of two of the Big Three automakers. Their 'transformative' evolution puts them in a position to compete globally.
Focus Lower wages now at Big Three automakers, but new hires aren't whining

A sixth-generation GM worker is delighted to have landed a job at the US automaker, even if her wages and benefits don't hold a candle to what her own father made there. Such jobs, it seems, are still prized.
Focus With no jobs in the city, country life is coming back to Spain

After decades of population loss to cities, rural areas in Spain – and across Europe – have been gaining allure as havens from the ongoing recession.
Focus Spanish urban entrepreneurs yield to the lure of rural living

Spain's rural development is on the rise, thanks in part to entrepreneurs and professionals like Juan Hurtado, who is transforming an old train station into a cooperative living community.
Focus Was Shane Todd murdered over high-tech secrets?

Shane Todd, a US citizen working in Singapore, believed he had access to restricted tech. His death in 2012 was by suicide, say local authorities. But his family, suspecting murder, wants the FBI to take part in the investigation.
Focus Model for megacities? Mexico City cleans up its air.

As people around the world celebrate Earth Day, Mexico City may serve as an unlikely environmental example for cities in developing countries suffering poor air quality.
Focus On Earth Day 2013, a planetary report card on global warming

Planetary carbon dioxide concentrations are the highest they've been in the past 800,000 years, an ignominious milestone for Earth Day 2013. Still, the world is making some progress toward addressing global warming.
Focus A way to curb global warming: Suck carbon emissions right out of the air?

Most efforts to address carbon emissions focus on preventing them from entering the atmosphere in the first place. But how to get rid of CO2 already there? Start-ups are developing prototype air-capture systems.
Focus Tax reform: Why a kinder, simpler tax code eludes Congress, so far

As Tax Day nears, Americans in the throes of preparing their returns may be dreaming of a simpler tax code. Here's why tax reform is such a tall order for Congress – and how two lawmakers are laying the groundwork for it now.
Focus In Mali, a war ends but instability lingers

The French drove out Islamist rebels in northern Mali. But can France and its African allies translate those victories into regional stability and peace?
Focus Mali's separatist Tuaregs cling to dream

Caught between a distant government in Bamako and an Islamist rebel movement in their home region, Mali's minority Tuaregs face an uncertain future.
Focus Beijing is booming, but talent is leaving due to bad air

The horrifyingly bad air in Beijing is driving something of an expat exodus - as well as one by young Chinese executive types. The past three months have seen the worst air quality on record.
Focus For Egypt's rich, a touch of irrational exuberance

While the overall economic picture for Egypt is a gloomy one, a tiny, fabulously wealthy class remains that continues to prosper despite the grimmest economic conditions in decades.
Focus Bread riots or bankruptcy: Egypt faces stark economic choices

Egypt needs IMF money to stay afloat, but the international lender is demanding tough subsidy cuts from an already-embattled government.
Focus Medicare: Could Rep. Paul Ryan's reform plan work?

The only big Medicare reform idea that's been pitched in public is called 'premium support,' championed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R). Here's how it would work, and here's why Democrats deride it as a 'voucher.'
Focus Taming Medicare costs: What are the options?

The US spends twice as much per person on health care as other advanced economies, and Medicare is one of the biggest culprits. But here's why cutting its costs won't be easy.
Focus Venezuela: Navigating life after Chávez

As Venezuela prepares to elect a new president, the focus has turned to whether Chávez's legacy – a petroleum-fueled political-economic system he referred to as socialism for the 21st century – can last.